Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Newey — who designed the cars that won Red Bull the past four drivers’ championships — said the new 1.6 liter V6 turbo hybrid engines have increased costs and slowed down the cars for little benefit.

In addition to revealing to Sky Italia that he is keen to extend his Yamaha deal for another year, Valentino Rossi also gave an insight into his rivalries, his successors, and what life after MotoGP might bring.

The hot topic was of course his renewed battle with Marquez – what he thought about the World Champion, and whether he is worried that his records will be broken some day: “He’s really good, it makes me worry, but he’s also a nice guy and is always ready to fight. He’s someone who knows how to ride the bike very well and has a great desire to win always, to be out in front – so he’s a great opponent.

Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso says he was hampered by a loss of straight-line performance in his Ferrari over the course of qualifying in Formula One at Bahrain, which led to him finishing Q3 in a lowly 10th place.

He will start ninth, however, as Daniel Ricciardo has a 10-place penalty. Nico Rosberg sits on the pole, with his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, starting alongside him on the front row for the Sunday race.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continued to dominate the new Formula 1 season by setting the pace in Saturday’s pre-qualifying practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, while World Champion Sebastian Vettel had a rare session-ending spin.

Hamilton, who won last weekend in Malaysia, was quickest with a time of 1 minute, 35.324 seconds at the Bahrain International Circuit, while his teammate and championship leader Rosberg was just one tenth of a second off that pace.